Never Accept a Counteroffer
You land an offer for a brand new position at another firm. You inform your current company of the situation. Suddenly, they present an enticing offer to get you to stay.
Key Takeaways:
93% of employees who accept a counteroffer won't be with their current company after a year.
Leaving a bad boss, a poor work culture, or a dying industry isn't just the right thing to do, it's the smart thing to do for your career.
Have you ever found yourself in this situation…
You're unhappy at work. So you put together a resume, and start putting some feelers out there to see what else is on the open market. You find an opportunity and go through the interviewing process. Before you know it, you land an offer for a brand new position, and as you inform your current company of the situation they suddenly scramble and they give you a counter offer to stay.
They're promising you all sorts of things like a new job title and a bigger compensation package. So what do you do in that situation?
If you've ever found yourself in a situation where you're deciding between taking a new opportunity or accepting a counteroffer, it can be a stressful trying to pick what’s your best move.
According to LinkedIn, 80% or more of those who accept counters won't be with their company after six months. An even more staggering statistic is that 93% won't be with their current company after a year. So, if you're considering accepting that counteroffer, you might want to think twice before you move forward.
So why shouldn't you accept a counteroffer?
The reasons why you were looking in the first place will still exist.
If you had a bad boss, you're still going to have a bad boss. Or, you're still going to be working with that bad boss.
If the company culture is poor, you're still going to have a company culture issue.
If the work life balance is an issue, you're probably still going to have that.
If the commute stinks, it's still gonna stink afterward.
If the benefits are terrible, they're still going to be terrible after you accept the counter.
Let’s say you got to the point where you would consider another offer, then you're probably doing it for a good reason. You should keep your options open. Remember, even if you're employed, you're still a free agent. The cold hard reality is you need to be selfish with your career. And let's face it, companies lay off long-tenured employees with little to no warning. Leaving a bad boss, a poor work culture, or a dying industry isn't just the right thing to do, it's the smart thing to do for your career.
You need to ask yourself: Why are they countering?
Essentially, they were undervaluing you until you decided to leave.
Maybe they realize that they took you for granted.
Maybe they're buying themselves time in order to replace you.
Now that the counteroffer has been made, your relationships are not going to be the same. They're likely searching for your replacement, or a way to transfer your knowledge, or put together a contingency plan in case you do leave.
So effectively, what you've done is made yourself redundant because now that you've broadcast your intention to leave, your boss is going to know that they need a contingency plan for you.
Did you catch them completely off guard with no contingency plan?
Make no mistake, they're not going to be caught off guard again, which is exactly why you should be concerned about layoffs and other adverse employment decisions. Since you've already shown that you're dissatisfied:
You're going to be labeled as somebody that's not long term committed to the business goals.
When the company hits a rough patch, who do you think they're going to look at first (especially if you have a higher salary)?
Which is another thing to take into consideration when you're looking at a counter where they're not paying you correctly to begin with? Or were they undervaluing your skill set?
Consider this:
If they offered you a promotion to stay, why didn't they give you a promotion before? Or, why were you passed up for promotion?
Why did it take threatening to leave for them to finally recognize you?It’s either they became complacent or they took advantage of you. They looked at you as somebody that was not a flight risk.
Even if you were promised a promotional opportunity or expanded responsibility. Think about how your long term career prospects will be affected. Will they keep looking at you as somebody that they can count on to continue moving throughout the organization?
Imagine if you announce that you're leaving… but then you accept the counter:
Now people are looking at you differently:
Senior leaders may believe that you're not as dedicated as you once were and will pass on you for future promotional opportunities.
The role that you were promised is just to keep you happy for the time being.
It might get better for a period of time. There's usually a honeymoon period, but eventually, that's going to wear off too. And when it wears off, you're going to have to deal with a lot of the same issues that were there before.
If working conditions or the business environment were some of the motivators for you to look for a new opportunity, they're probably still going to exist.
If your business is going through a rough patch, and you're worried about overall stability, it's probably not going to change either.
Even if you got promoted into a new role with a new boss, you're still going to have to work alongside the old boss, the person that you effectively threatened to quit on.
So if you get a counteroffer, congratulations! You have a difficult decision to make. But I'd advise thinking long and hard about whether it's really going to help your career in the long run. It's sort of like an old relationship, look back on it fondly, but remember that it ended for a reason and look forward to new beginnings. Your career is going to thank you for it.